13 Great Tacos in El Paso

It can be difficult to see beyond the attention given to El Paso’s most significant contribution to tacos—Chico’s Tacos. It’s recognized by the Texas House of Representatives. It’s on TV. It’s available for mail order. Look a little harder, even along Alameda Avenue, home to the original Chico’s Tacos, and you’ll find a dynamic taco landscape populated by kiosks, food trucks, mom-and-pop taquerias, flashy joints and other longstanding institutions doing everything from slinging specialty fare to unabashedly finishing signature dishes with lettuce, tomato and Muenster cheese—a typical El Paso substitute for Tex-Mex’s classic orange cheese.

As part of the run up to Texas Monthly’s 2015 taco issue, the magazine’s editors have scattered a team of discerning taco aficionados across the state do to the demanding work of eating and evaluating as many tacos as they can stomach. We’ve featured notable tacos in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and in the Rio Grande Valley. Now it’s El Paso’s turn. The 13 tacos listed herein offer a sweeping look at what that border city has to offer.